yas122188

My 1998 a4. 2.8 burns about 1 quart every 600 miles or so. There are no apparent leaks and no smoke out of the exhaust and no power loss. The ONLY thing i notice is when i go to pour more oil in the filler i see a little bit of steam or smoke.. any ideas as to what is wrong??

pibbTibbs

That doesn't sound like an awful lot of oil to burn through. My 97 easily goes through that much, but i know some is seeping from the upper oil pan gasket, maybe the lower too. If you cant see any leaks but you are pretty sure its losing oil other than by burning than perhaps it is your valley pan gasket. These were an issue on my 97's 12v engine but i am not sure if the problem managed to make its way into your 30v. You'll know soon enough. Next time its up on a hoist if you can see some oil that might look to be comin from rear main seal, feel around top of the clutch/tranny area if its soaked in oil as well theres a good chance its coming from the valley pan.

rynaldo

could be a crank seal, mine has a leak, needs a liter maybe every month or so,
free undercoating haha

K04-S4

Normal if your adding oil to a warm engine.

As mentioned, look for things like a crank or head seal leaking.

For example along with Ultimate TB Kit, replacing front crank seal & flange gasket causing one of several oil leaks on a 2.7T right now. Sure makes for a sludge mess of the lower engine to clean up!